SummaryOverall the game will have many fixes even when you do not purchase the Dark Brotherhood DLC. The most significant changes are the changes to the Ardent Flame skill tree of the Dragonknight. These previously all did Flame Damage, yet will do Poison Damage instead after the patch. For most Templar skills, the damage will be Physical Damage instead of Magic Damage. For Sorcerers Absorption Field and Suppression Field (both morphs from Negate Magic) will be more interesting to use. And Storm Calling will be a massive AOE after the patch.​For Two Handed users, Cleave becomes an interesting choise for DoT (an increase of 20% damage). Uppercut will see significant changes in its functionality. Only Dizzying Swing will stun and knockback an enemy, Wrecking Blow will no longer do this. One Hand and Shield users will see more functionality for Power Bash. Which gets increased Damage. Dual Wield users have an interesting change in the Dark Brotherhood Patch: Hidden Blade will now grant Major Brutality for 20 seconds instead of 10 seconds. Bow users will also benefit from the patch. Poison Arrow has its damage increased by 12%.

Light Armor users will see no benefits in this patch. Annulment will be nerfed from 20 seconds to 6 seconds but does absorp all damage instead of only Spell Damage. Heavy Armor users will see a great improvement in passives. More resources will be returned on taking damage and a passive will now increase Spell and Weapon Damage.

Vampires will have some improvements. Mist Form will now also remove previously applied snares and immobilizations. And no longer Vampires need to slot at least one ability for Supernatural Recovery. Werewolves do not see any major changes.

In the Guilds section, the Fighters Guild sees the most significant changes. Dawnbreaker no longer deals Magic Damage but Physical Damage. Dawnbreaker of Smiting now knocks all enemies back instead of only Undead and Daedra. Expert Hunter keeps its buffs but does not longer do extra damage to Undead and Daedra. Instead it has become a detection ability. Allowing you to detect hidden and invisible enemies. And has become the Stamina equivalent of Radiant Magelight (morph from Mage Light). Silver Bolts also sees some nice changes. It will become either a snare or pull (like Empowering Chains from Ardent Flame of the Dragon Knight)

​In the Alliance War skill trees, under Assault, Magicka Detonation gets a damage decrease of 45%. And Proximity Detonation will now not show the red circle around a hidden or invisible enemy. In the Support skill tree, Guard is redesigned into a more valuable tanking skill.

General

Veteran Ranks removed

All pets and summons will now have 5000 additional health in PvP areas.

World in Flame: Renamed this passive ability to World in Ruin. In addition, this passive ability now also increases the damage of Poison area of effect abilities, in addition to Flame area of effect abilities.

Thundering Presence (Lightning Form morph): Has been renamed to Hurricane and deals Physical Damage instead of Shock Damage. Redesign changed radius to 9 meters and increasing damage up to 225%, the longer it is active.

Power of the Light (Backlash morph): This morph now deals Physical Damage instead of Magic Damage.

Restoring Light

Cleansing Ritual: This ability now always removes 2 harmful effects from the casting Templar as a baseline effect, increased from 1 harmful effect.

Cleansing Ritual: This ability now always removes 2 harmful effects from the casting Templar as a baseline effect, increased from 1 harmful effect.

Purifying Ritual (Cleansing Ritual morph): Renamed this morph to Ritual of Retribution and now also deals damage over time to enemies in the area of effect.

Rushed Ceremony: This ability and its morphs can no longer heal allies through walls and other line of sight blockers.

Weapons

Two Handed

Cleave: Now deals 20% more damage over time.

Executioner (Reverse Slash morph): Does no longer passively increase damage of all Two Handed abilities slotted

​Uppercut: This ability and the Wrecking Blow morph no longer knockback and stun enemies hit.​ Wrecking Blow will continue to add the Major Empower buff to your next attack as a morph effect.

Dizzying Swing (Uppercut morph): Will no longer apply the Minor Maim debuff to enemies hit; instead, it will add a knockback and stun to the ability.

One Hand and Shield

Power Bash: Now deals 85% more damage but has decreased range of 5 meters from 7 meters.

Power Slam (Power Bash morph): Now increases the damage done of the next Power Slam by 25% for 5 seconds.

Dual Wield

Blinding Flurry (Flurry morph): Renamed to Bloodthirst and now heals you for 60% of the damage done with the final hit.

​Hidden Blade: This ability and morphs now grant Major Brutality for 20 seconds instead of 10 seconds.

Bow

Poison Arrow: Increased the damage over time from this ability and its morphs by 12%.

Scorched Earth (Volley morph): Has been renamed to Endless Hail. And now deals Physical Damage instead of Flame Damage.

Armor

Light Armor

Annulment: Reduced the duration of this effect to 6 seconds from 20 seconds and now absorps all damage instead of only spell damage​​

Heavy Armor

Bracing: Renamed this passive ability to Wrath. It now increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by 10/20 for 6 seconds after taking damage at Ranks I/II respectively, stacking up to 10 times.

Constitution: Increased the amount of Magicka and Stamina restored from this passive ability whenever you are hit by approximately 275%.

World

Vampire

Mist Form: This ability and its morphs now remove previously applied snares and immobilizations, in addition to making you immune to any new ones while active.

Poison Mist (Mist Form morph): Renamed this morph to Baleful Mist and now deals Magic Damage instead of Poison Damage.

​Supernatural Recovery: This passive ability no longer requires a Vampire ability to be slotted

Werewolf

No major changes, check Patch Notes for minor changes.

Guilds

Fighters Guild

Dawnbreaker: This ability and its morphs no longer deal bonus damage to Undead and Daedra, and now deals Physical Damage instead of Magic Damage.

Dawnbreaker of Smiting (Dawnbreaker morph): In addition to the changes made to the base ability, this morph also now knocks down any enemy hit instead of only Undead and Daedra. We also reduced the duration of the knock down to 2.5 seconds from 5 seconds.

Expert Hunter: No longer has a change to deal more damage, but rather detects hidden or invisible enemies in a 6 meter radius for 5 seconds and prevents enemies from returning to stealth for 3 seconds.

Evil Hunter (Expert Hunter morph): Now also reduces the Stamina cost of Fighters Guild abilities by 25% while active.

Intimidating Presence: This passive ability now also reduces the cost of Fighters Guild abilities by 20%.

Silver Bolts: This ability and its morphs no longer knock down or deal bonus damage to Undead and Daedra; instead, they now reduce the Movement Speed of any enemy hit by 40% for 6 seconds.

Silver Leash (Silver Bolts morph): In addition to the changes made to the base ability, this morph also now pulls the caster to the target when it is activated a second time. Additionally, the caster can pull themselves to any target instead of just Undead and Daedra targets.

Slayer: Redesigned this passive ability so it now increases your Weapon Damage

​Skilled Tracker: Redesigned this passive ability so it now increases all damage dealt with Fighters Guild abilities by 20% against Undead, Daedra, and Werewolves.

Mages Guild

Balance (Equilibrium morph): In addition to the changes made to the base ability, we also redesigned this morph so it no longer grants the Major Fortitude buff for 17 seconds after casting; instead, it grants the Major Resolve and Major Ward buffs for 4 seconds after casting.

Equilibrium: Reduced the health cost for this ability and its morphs by 20%. The amount of Magicka gained in exchange remains unchanged.

Undaunted

Bone Shield: This ability and its morphs now absorb all damage instead of just physical damage.

Alliance War

Assault

Magicka Detonation: Reduced the damage of this ability and its morphs by 45%. They now deal 25% additional damage per target hit, up from 10%, and cap that bonus damage up to a total of 250% more damage done, up from 100% more damage done. The net result should be significantly less damage to 1 target, and slightly less damage to 10 targets.

Proximity Detonation (Magicka Detonation morph): Fixed an issue where the red telegraph circle from this ability was remaining at the last seen spot the enemy player was before they became invisible. It will now also be invisible when the enemy player is invisible.

Support

Guard: Redesigned this ability and its morphs so they no longer intercept projectiles around you; instead, they are now single target abilities that can be cast on an ally to tether to them. While tethered, 30% of the damage they take is redistributed to you. ​Your Stamina Recovery is disabled while tethered to the ally, but the tether can be broken by recasting the spell or moving more than 15 meters away from them.

Mystic Guard (Guard morph): This morph will now grant you and the tethered ally the Minor Vitality buff.

Stalwart Guard (Guard morph): This morph will now grant you and the tethered ally the Minor Force buff.